Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We all acknowledge the tremendous work the Defence Forces do nationally and, in particular, internationally. How many requests are before the Department for Irish troops to participate in peacekeeping schemes abroad? How does the Department pick the schemes to participate in? The Minister said that 640 members of the Defence Forces were serving abroad. Is the Reserve Defence Force allowed to participate in schemes abroad? How many members of the Reserve Defence Force are there and what is the total number in the Defence Forces at the moment?

I will not go over the subject of pay and conditions again as many other members have spoken about them. It is a big issue, however, and we get it all the time. Many members of the Defence Forces are now leaving to join An Garda Síochána, and I have met four such young lads in the past five weeks. I know the Department is making a submission to the Public Service Pay Commission on behalf of the Defence Forces. I tabled a parliamentary question on 27 March calling for this to be submitted within a matter of weeks. Has a full submission been made to the Public Service Pay Commission? Will a copy of the submission be made available to this committee and its members? It is a big issue.

I am led to believe there are a huge number of cases from the Defence Forces at the conciliation and arbitration scheme which was set up a number of years ago. I also tabled a parliamentary question to ask how many cases there were, with a year-by-year breakdown, but I have not yet received a reply. Why is it taking so long for these cases to be determined?